Hunter Hayes ‘needed a breath of fresh air,’ Jason Mraz helped

Hunter Hayes looked older and a bit dapper this week leading up to the 47th annual CMA Awards when he showed up on the red carpet at the BMI Country Awards on Tuesday night sporting some facial hair – a change for the usually baby-faced singer.

He laughed that he was going for a “slightly wiser” look and then explained that wasn’t the only change he’s made recently.

Hayes performed his new single “Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me” on the CMA Awards Wednesday night with help from his “buddy ole pal” Jason Mraz, who flew into Nashville just for the performance.

Hayes calls the song “a complete left turn” and said he needed to do something “a bit different” from his last string of hits including “Wanted” and “I Want Crazy.”

“I owed it to the world to stop putting out love songs,” Hayes said. “I needed a breath of fresh air.”

Hayes describes “Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me” as “an honest-to-God song that’s written about the most awkward moments in your life.”

“Love is a beautiful thing unless you’re single (and surrounded by people in love) and then it’s just kind of annoying,” he said. “I had to speak for that side of life, too, because I’ve definitely gone through that. You can laugh about it, and I wanted to laugh about it and it was about time I laughed in a song.”